New Driving Game - Looking For Feedback

[TomC10]

I am very new to game development and I have one that I am hoping to get some feedback on.

It's simple a driving game. You click anywhere on the left side of the road to change lanes left, and on the right side to change lanes right.

You are allowed three crashes before the game ends and you gain one crash for every 100 points. A head-on crash ends the game immediately.

The game gradually speeds up over time but I think it's too easy at first to move through traffic.

I appreciate any feedback or advice.

You can play the game here: http://www.moonglowsoftware.com/games/taxi-driver/taxi-driver.html

Thanks.

[b10b]

@TomC10 just some quick feedback ... 1) needs keyboard control too, 2) the dashed lines on the road are "above" the cars (visible when they spin), 3) hit test rectangle allows lots of overlap on rear of car, 4) phantom yellow pixel top left of Taxi, 5) gameplay needs some evolution (good start, add more, make fun!)

[Wolfsbane]

When playing with mouse, I died the first time, because I was just clicking to the left/right of the car to move it. But if you click on the left side of the car, but it's still technically on the right side of the screen, it goes in the 'wrong' direction. (If that makes sense)

Still, figured it out after that. ? Maybe that's just me being a bit dumb. I know you put the text/instructions at the start of the game, but it was a few too many words for me to read all at once. I've seen other games do different things, like flash one half of the screen with a right-arrow, and the other half with a left arrow.

I'd say you've got a little bit too much text in general. From a UX/Design perspective. You can replace a lot of them with graphic icons, etc. This makes it better for international audience, as the UI becomes universal.

E.g. 'Crashes Remaining:' could simply become 3 car icons. Each crash you are, a car turns into a wreck until they're all wrecks. Score is just score. Could just do a coin icon, or some other icon rather than just text 'score'.

I'd also add some transition/animation between movements. E.g. right now you click right, you are instantly moved into the next lane. that might be okay for the gameplay, (especially once the game gets too fast). But visually, it might be nicer to have the car 'smoothly' slip into the next lane. Something to think about.

Some design things to think about: Some rewards to the player as they're playing. E.g. they hit 10 points, A star pops up. 30 points, second star flashes out on screen. A bit of particle/eye candy stuff that feeds that 'I'm doing good stuff' for the player.

[TomC10]

Thank you very much for the feedback and suggestions guys, it's very helpful.

I definitely have some work to do. ☺️

[ShrewdPixel]

Tested with Chrome on MacOS Mojave.

I'd agree with what's already been said in previous posts, with particular attention to the controls. (The car gets locked into position and cannot move sometimes - it appears to be a logic problem based on either input position or code flow)

Adding keyboard controls would not only help with interface, but also to help test your game logic. Multiple methods of control can really help you debug a game. I'd go for that first so you can tell if the control issues are based on input positioning or code flow. Debug the gameplay then dress it up to show it off. 

Good Luck!

 

[TomC10]

Thank you ShrewdPixel, I appreciate the feedback. Adding keyboard controls is my first priority.

[ShrewdPixel]

After taking a look at the code, it looks like you could implement it pretty quickly with the example provided by kittykatattack on Github.

Here's a link to that section in particular: https://github.com/kittykatattack/learningPixi#keyboard

With those event listeners added, it could be integrated by adding just a few lines to your changeLanes() function, under road.js.

Hope that helps, and Good Luck!

[TomC10]

Wow! thanks again ShrewdPixel, that will be very helpful.

It will probably be a week or two before I can get back to the game but when I do this is where I'll start.

[clays]

Nice game. I like the visual quality looks polished.

I agree with others about the left/right screen input issue. What I can suggest is, instead the screen divided into two events to move left or right, make player to click the left or right side of the car. The left/right screen input may work on two lanes but I am not sure on multiple lanes like this. The other solution is put a left and right arrows there but usually only shows up on touch-enabled devices while desktop and other (joystick) uses their own movement input.

Also just an optional feature feedback, maybe you wanna add taxi booster power up (or by button) to make the car faster in short amount of time. This gives quite a dynamic but also increases the risk of the player to crash.
If you don't like it cause it's too unrealistic, I have another. Since this is a taxi game, why not put passengers on the left or right that the player can pick up on the way for extra points? The risk is, the player definitely does not always able to reach there.

I think that's all so far. Good job! ?

[TomC10]

Thanks everyone for the feedback, it has been very helpful. I have make the corrections and I think the game is much better.

I added keyboard controls and better instructions, a speed boost and braking, and power-ups. If using the mouse you now change lanes by clicking on either side of the car rather than either side of the road.

Please let me know what you think.

Here is the link again: http://www.moonglowsoftware.com/games/taxi-driver/taxi-driver.html

Also, does anyone have any suggestions on the best places to publish an HTML5 game?

Thanks again. I really appreciate all the help and suggestions.

[Wolfsbane]

Hey, it's awesome you came back, with a lot of good improvements. Good stuff!

*I played with keyboard only, no mouse*. I actually really like the speed boost (and breaking). It feels quite nice. 

How about some slight rotation when moving left/right? So if you're moving right, the car angles right a little bit, then straightens up. Sometimes when driving, you can boost and wanting to slide inbetween two cars, but the gaps are a bit tight. Would be nice to kind of slide in there.

Also, the collisions are a bit unforgiving. Something it pays to make the hitboxes a bit smaller than the actual graphic.. a player usually feels happier about sliding their car between a narrow gap (even if there is a few pixel overlap) than if they have an unforgiving pixel-perfect crash. (if that makes sense?).

Well, something to think about as you play around with the game. Again, I tried this with keyboard, so might be different story with a mouse only/smartphone control. ?

[TomC10]

Thank you Wolfsbane, I appreciate the feedback.

Those are two very good suggestions and I have implemented them both. I added +/- 5 degrees of rotation when changing lanes and the hit-box for the taxi is about 85% the size of the car.

It made a definite improvement.

Thanks again.